World's Energy

MOSCOW, October 31 (RIA Novosti) - The Czech Republic is ready to sign contracts for oil deliveries from Russia without intermediaries, the country's industry and trade minister said on Friday. Russia has been reducing oil supplies to the Czech Republic over the past four months. The chairman of state oil giant Rosneft, Igor Sechin, earlier said the decline was due to a lack of direct contracts between Russian suppliers and Czech customers. After a meeting of the bilateral intergovernmental commission on economic, industrial and research cooperation, Czech Industry and Trade Minister Martin Riman said he hoped oil supplies would soon be resumed in previously approved volumes. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov told reporters on Friday that Moscow is seeking to build nuclear reactors in the Czech Republic jointly with Czech companies. "I would like to reiterate that we are interested in cooperation, and that Russia is interested in building new nuclear reactors in the Czech Republic," he said. The Czech energy company CEZ earlier said it was considering announcing a tender for the construction of new reactors for the Temelin nuclear power plant. Atomstroyexport, Russia's nuclear power equipment and service export monopoly, is likely to bid.